Russian GRU officers not asking for clemency

Sentenced Russian GRU officers Evgeny Erofeyev and Alexander Alexandrov will not file a petition for clemency.

KYIV (QHA) -

A lawyer Oksana Sokolovskaya said that GRU officers do not consider a verdict to be legitimate.

-Since both the convicts and the defense do not consider the verdict to be lawful and grounded, we do not agree with this sentence and are not going to apply for pardon, said Sokolovsky as cited by UNIAN.

However, the lawyer of the convicted Russians noted that under the new rules the petition for clemency can be filed by other people - for example, relatives or the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights.

As QHA reported earlier, the lawyer Oksana Sokolovskaya was going to apply for a pardon to Yerofeyev in accordance with the procedure specified in the Presidential Decree.

Russians Alexander Alexandrov and Evgeniy Yerofeyev have been sentenced to 13 and 14 years of imprisonment respectively with confiscation of all property. The Court found them guilty of waging aggressive war in a preliminary conspiracy against Ukraine, as active members of the Russia’s Armed Forces.

Earlier, the Ukrainian President's website reported on a telephone talk between Petro Poroshenko and Vladimir Putin, in which they discussed the liberation of Nadiya Savchenko, Yevgeniy Yerofeyev and Alexander Alexandrov.